Water and Food

I decided to write about 2 different topics today that are unique to the culture here. There are many more but I will start with 2 for today.

First topic is water. The sinks in the kitchen and the bathroom have only cold water. If I want to wash my dishes with warm or hot water I must boil some water on the stove. There is "hot" water in the showers but the water is never hot. I turn on only the hot water in my shower every morning and I am doing good if it is luke warm. I guess it is a good way to save on water. You take a really quick shower. Since it is the "cool" season it is a little cooler in the morning so I take really fast showers. Side note--there are also no heaters here. If it is unusually cool some days you just layer your clothes because your place isn't going to get any warmer.

Food is the second topic. Today I went to the end of my street to the Ploenchit Center for lunch. It is a great shopping center with Starbucks, Mc'Donald's, a Lebanese restaurant and many other nice restaurants on the ground and 1st floor. These restaurants are very nice but expensive for here. An example would be that a meal would be around 200 baht or more. The exchange rate is about 34 baht to the dollar. So it is about $6-$8 to eat at those places. The real "Thai" experience is to eat either from street vendors or in the "Thai" food courts. I just found out yesterday that the shopping center has a food court on the 6th floor (great find!). I went today and had chicken & rice and a glass of Pepsi for 55 baht. That is less than $2 and it is a ton of food. I can never eat the whole plate of food. Then I went out on the street and got a bag of cut up fresh pineapple for 10 baht. The pineapple and mango is amazing here!!! So basically I had lunch and some fruit for 65 baht which is not quite $2. By the way--almost all street vendors have tables and chairs and you eat with real plates and silverware sitting on the sidewalks or parts of the street. I have eaten from several street vendors and the food is great & cheap!

Tomorrow I will tell you about the electricity here!